As time passes, the human body naturally goes through an aging process, which leads to pain due to the partial degradation of the body, thus leading to activity restrictions. Further, in addition to the restriction of activities related to the effects of aging, there are other causes of a restriction in the ability of the body to perform activities, such causes include: traffic accidents due to industrial and technical development, industrial accidents, sport injury, simple accidents in activity, stress, insufficient exercise and obesity, which may lead to various complications, such as brain damage, myocardial infarction, hardening of the arteries, and arthritis.
In order to treat pain, physical damage, or obesity caused by the natural aging process or by socio-cultural problems, various stimulation apparatuses as well as medicine and health functional foods have been developed and are utilized. An example of a stimulation apparatuses is a massaging device.
Generally, a massaging device is a device that stimulates the skin or the scalp while hitting or rubbing it to promote blood circulation and lipolysis and to stimulate excretion of waste from the body. Such a massaging device generates vibration or electrical stimulation using an electrical signal and applies the stimulation to the skin or the scalp. Examples of the massaging device include a low-frequency massaging device that is configured to mount an electrode on a surface of the skin to apply low-frequency current to the human body, a ultrasonic massaging device that is configured to make a ultrasonic radiating probe contact with the surface of the skin to transmit ultrasonic vibration, a massaging device using extremely low frequency or far-infrared radiation, etc.
As current technology of stimulating the human body using vibration, various methods are applied and utilized, for example, a linear stimulating method using a simple rotary vibration motor and a solenoid, a pressing method of using air pressure, a stimulator inducing muscle contraction by inputting low-frequency current, and a method of contracting the muscle using a magnetic field. However, the above-mentioned methods simply apply pressure or stimulation to the human body, and have technical limits.
For example, a vibrator using a motor may adjust the number of vibrations, but is problematic in that it is impossible to adjust an amplitude or an intensity thereof, so that its incorrect use may cause bodily damage to, and the vibrator may not rhythmically transmit the desired number of vibrations due to the structural characteristics thereof.
Recently, in order to solve the problems, stimulating methods using the principle of a speaker have been proposed. However, they cannot realize an intensity sufficient for a user to feel the stimulation, and thus serve simply as a sub-woofer of the speaker.
In addition, technology using a low-frequency current, technology using ultrasonic waves, and technology using a high frequency have been proposed and applied. However, the low frequency causes great inconvenience to a user, and the ultrasonic wave is problematic in that it is difficult to be directly adapted to a user's feeling and effect, and an affected area is exposed, so that a medium is required to transmit the low frequency or the ultrasonic waves. This causes a critical difficulty when in use.
A high frequency is for the purpose of generating deep heat rather than being used as the stimulation apparatus, so it causes a user to feel insecure and inherently has risk factors in terms of the characteristics of the high frequency. The high frequency is problematic in that the exposure of the affected area and the medium for the transmission are needed when in use, and a conducting plate is used to transmit power to a positive pole, thus causing great inconvenience when in use.
A low-frequency therapeutic apparatus is problematic in that low-frequency current is continuously and repeatedly applied to the skin through an electrode in the form of a low-frequency pulse, so that a user feels if he or she is receiving an electric shock, thus giving an unpleasant feeling to the user and thereby reducing treatment effect. Further, the low-frequency therapeutic apparatus is problematic in that the affected area should be exposed to attach the electrode to the skin, so that women may avoid using the apparatus.
A ultrasonic-wave apparatus for treatment and beauty care is configured such that, if a skin contact surface of a ultrasonic radiating probe comes into contact with the skin, the vibration of ultrasonic waves is propagated. However, the apparatus is problematic in that an incorrect contact of the probe with the skin does not propagate the vibration of ultrasonic waves, so that it is impossible to achieve sufficient effect, and ultrasonic waves having an output value set by a user are radiated regardless of whether the probe comes into contact with the skin, so that the vibration propagating portion of the probe generates heat by vibration when the probe is not in contact with the skin, and rises in temperature, thus causing a user to feel unpleasant, and in addition, he or she may get burned when the apparatus is used for a lengthy period of time.
Further, it is possible to implement various skin care modes using vibrators that are vibrated up and down in a magnetic-coil method. Various technologies have been proposed, which permit a galvanic massage and an iontophoresis massage using the vibrators.
However, the related art adopts a method of stimulating the skin by converting the rotating force of the vibration motor into a rectilinear motion or a cam motion. Hence, this is problematic in that it makes much noise while the power of the vibration motor is transmitted, thus causing a user of a beauty-care instrument to feel unpleasant. This is problematic in that it uses the principle of causing vibration by eccentricity, so that a force dispersed in a horizontal direction, namely, a direction parallel to a skin face is large and a force acting vertically on the skin face is small, and consequently it is difficult to effectively massage the skin.
Moreover, a device for generating a soundwave or a sound source using the principle of a speaker has been developed. However, this is problematic in that a frequency generating width is small and an intensity is also very small due to structural characteristics of a magnetic circuit and positions of a plate spring and a coil. In addition, a guide using a bearing for keeping the soundwave vibration vertical and a coil spring for maintaining elasticity are required, so that it is difficult to reduce a size of the device.
The related art is very restricted in using mode and function, so that it is difficult to effectively manage the human body.